Pickle Wars!

Hi, it’s Leslie Harris, and I love a good dill pickle, but I also try to avoid preservatives.

Wahlburgers advertises it’s pickles as fresh, all natural, and containing no preservatives. However, fresh pickle maker Grillo’s Pickles says that they have tested Wahlburgers pickles and showed that they contain considerable amounts of benzoic acid, which is often added to foods via the preservative sodium benzoate.

Pickle competitor Grillo’s is accusing Wahlburgers of misleading consumers and retailers, because Wahlburgers pickles labels do not list preservatives, and they say that recent lab tests show the amount of preservative found in Wahlburgers pickles far exceeds a trace amount. This indicates that it was added to these products despite what is claimed on their labels.

Now the FDA says that sodium benzoate is generally recognized as safe as an additive at levels less than 0.1% in food, but that word generally makes me very uncomfortable, and if they’re advertised as having no preservatives, then what gives?

Anyway, I’ve never had a Wahlburgers pickle? Are they really that good? There is a Wahlburgers in St Charles. Let me know.